Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 456th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (17 -,23 April  2016), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

1. Undeclared Conservative spending in Liberal Democrat seats by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
Michael Crick investigates…

2. Michael Crick and Andrew Neil on Conservative election expenses by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
Crick’s Daily Politics interview.

3.  The Leave campaign falls apart when faced by one simple question by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
They need all the bluster to camouflage the fact that they don’t have any credible organisations supporting them.

4.  The man trying to end Labour’s cast iron grip on Manchester Council by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Go, John Leech!

5. My last goodbye by Chris Sams on  The Ginger Liberal from Medway.
Sad to see Chris leave the Lib Dems despite him remaining a supporter of the party and Tim Farron. Hope we can say hello again sometime.

6.  Answers needed on election expenses by Jeremy Rowe on Jeremy Rowe.
Jeremy is from a part of the world where that Tory battle bus called at 14 seats lost to the Tories from the Lib Dems.

7. Election expenses: the plot thickens  by Jeremy Rowe on Jeremy Rowe.
“This affair cannot be brushed under the carpet.”

And now to the five blog-posts that come highly recommended, regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. To nominate a Lib Dem blog article published in the past seven days – your own, or someone else’s, all you have to do is drop a line to [email protected]. You can also contact us via Twitter, where we’re @libdemvoice

8. European selections: could these be the most open in a generation? by Mark Valladares on Liberal Bureaucracy.
There are no incumbents, and no frontrunners. If you fancy being an MEP, why not go for it?

9. Day 5558: Europe, just the facts, Ma’am by Richard Flowers on The very fluffy diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant.
Do the Leave campaign have any actual facts? Richard thinks not. But he has loads.

10. Micropayments, micropayments, wherefore art thou micro payments? by Louise Ankers on From one of the jilted generation.
Interesting argument about newspaper subscriptions.

11. Statement on the NUS Presidential Election by The Executive of Liberal Youth on LY Libertine.
LY’s advice to NUS: be more inclusive and tolerant

12. Deluded UKIP try to claim antecedents in Gladstone’s Liberal party by Peter Black on Peter Black.
Peter is as baffled as the rest of us.

Finally, this week saw the loss of Victoria Wood. Stephen Tall explains his long-standing appreciation of her humour: “She could do it all. But, above all, there was always warmth. You didn’t just laugh: you smiled.”

And Jennie reminds us of the line of dialogue we’ve heard most this week. Where’s that Women’s Weekly?

And that’s it for another week. Happy blogging ‘n’ reading ‘n’ nominating.

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* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social